Fabiano Caruana, ranking 3rd in worldwide standings, leaves the Italian National Chess Team after ten year and will return to the United States Chess Federation (USCF), as the organization declared in a press conference last week.

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Background Information

Fabiano Caruana was born in Miami in 1992 and grew up in New York, his mother being Italian and his father also having Italian roots. At the age of five, he began playing chess and was member of the United States Chess Federation until thirteen years old. In October 2005, Caruana joined the Italian Chess Federation after he and his family had moved back to Europa to enhance his career opportunities. The United States weren’t particularly successful in the chess scene at that time – only six Americans ranked among the Top 85 of the world. To help their son obtain better training and to enhance the chances of successful and relevant tournament participation, his parents decided for their son to represent Italy on the international stage. Saying their plans added up, would simply be an understatement. On the other side of the big pond, Caruana exceeded all expectations and ascended to the absolute top of the world of chess.

Caruana holds dual citizenship – meaning he is Italian and American citizen at the same time. Until today, he pays taxes in the United States and speaks English flawlessly.

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The Change

The USCF has fought for Caruana’s attention for years and repeatedly invited him to participate in USchampionships. His decision and statements were still a surprise to many, although he had always shown his loyalty towards Italy which graciously supported him for an entire decade. Only half a year ago, Caruana answered the question of whether he planned to join a US chess team again as follows: “No, I do not have such plans at this point. However, I don’t know what the future holds.”

The Italian Chess Federation’s spokesman responded to the rumors of Caruana changing teams a while back: “America offered him 100,000 EUR per year, Azerbaijan even 400,000 EUR. I would love for him to make that amount of money with playing chess, but frankly, these offers were unsuccessful. Caruana signed a contract with the Italian Chess Federation over 80,000 EUR per annum in January and will stay with us until December.”

According to rumors, Caruana was offered a contract by St. Louis over six years and 200,000 EUR, which at first he distanced himself from by calling them “speculations”, but recently he admitted to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis playing a major role in his change:

“I am looking forward to representing the United States again and to working with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. I would like to thank everybody who made this possible and am excited for this new partnership. Also, I would like to use the occasion and express my appreciation and gratefulness for the support that the Italian Chess Federation has provided me with during the last ten years. I wish them all the best.”

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An Outlook

The Americans have put quite some effort into their establishment in the world’s chess elite in the recent past. Their endeavors are now rewarded with success. Jean Hoffmann, Executive Director of USCF, announced:

“For the first time in history, the United States have three players in the Top 10: The world’s third, Fabiano Caruana, its fourth, Hikaru Nakamura, and its ninth, Wesley So.”

Measured by their ELO-ratings (2745.4) the US national team is now second best team in the world, behind Russia (2759.4). The first meaningful international tournament at which Caruana will represent the United States are the Chess Olympics in Baku next year.

And of course, there is this thing with the World Championship title. If Caruana were to win the world championship next year, he’d be the first American player since Bobby Fischer to accomplish this milestone.

Caruana answered the question whether he would feel like an American or Italian world champion in case he would actually win the title diplomatically:

“Why can’t I be both at the same time? I consider myself an American, as I was born in the States and grew up there. At the same time, I am Italian, because my Mother is Italian and the ancestors on my father’s side of the family were also Italian.”

The A-Group consisted what is plavix 75 mg used for of 66 players, half of which were Azerbaijanis. The remaining half came from Belgium, China, France, Georgia, India, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Amongst them were 23 grandmasters, 2 super-grandmasters even. Etienne Bacrot and Rustan Kasimdzhanov to be exact.

Surprisingly, the ELO-favorites were nowhere near the battles for the top ranks. Though Kasimdzhanov showed no defeat on his account, he scored only 6 points due to many draws. Bacrot fought similar difficulties and even had to comply with a defeat against Pouya Idani. Former world champion Yifan Hou lost two duels and won five, and thus also collected 6 points only.

The favorited players’ weak performances were quickly taken advantage of by the opponents – in the end, Eltaj Safarli and Gadir Guseinov shared 1st rank.

The Dutch action artist Iepe Rubingh invented a discipline called “Chess Boxing” in 2003 that (in compliance with the comic book “Froid Équateur”) originally intended to combine sport professionals at board an in the ring. The extraordinary concept became popular in very short time which caused it to spread from Berlin to the Netherlands and the entire world and made it a competitive sport.

A chess boxing battle is usually fought in eleven rounds; six of which are chess competitions, the other five are boxing rounds. Each round is three minutes long and the disciplines are fought in turns, beginning with a game of chess. This game remains the same throughout the entire competition and is interrupted by the rounds of boxing every three minutes. The exact position of every chess figure is registered and reconstructed on the board before every round of chess.

The participants have sixty second breaks in between rounds and the chess boxing competition can be decided prematurely through a knockout, technical knockout, or checkmate. Players may be disqualified after time trials (when a warning has been announced already). If one of the players resigns prematurely, he or she loses too. If all rounds are undecided and the last game of chess ends in a tie, the player with the alcohol en viagra most points in boxing prevails. If even the scores were equal in this discipline, the players playing the Black figures would win (which hasn’t occurred during competition yet).

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The Requirements

Players fight battles and competitions generic for plavix 75 mg in accordance with their weight category (lightweight, middle-weight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight). For admission at professional competitions, players must have at least 1600 ELO points and record of at least fifty amateur fights in boxing or another martial art.

Therefore, a chess boxer needs a high performance level in both disciplines. The competitors must be in good shape at rapid chess and must be able to switch between chess and boxing repeatedly and quickly, since this is the mostchallenging element of the sport. With adrenalin pumping and blood circulation at its highest level, the players must get their minds together within seconds to deliver a sound, calm, and tactical performance at the board. This game demands more from its players by the round, while they must cope with bodily exhaustion.

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The Preparation

The birthplace of chess boxing is considered to be Berlin, where inventor Iepe Rubingh founded the World Chess Boxing Organization (WCBO) in 2003 and of which he is still chairman today. Rubingh even won first World Championship took place in Amsterdam the same year. The following year, he founded the oldest chess boxing club of the world, the Chess Boxing Club Berlin. Since invented, the sport has gained popularity amongst sport professionals and spectators. More than eight hundred people watched the world championship qualifications in Cologne in 2006. Over twelve hundred tickets were sold for the following world championship battle in Berlin. The German player Frank Stoldt secured the first German championship title in 2007 and thus strengthened the country’s advanced position in chess boxing.

Even the FIDE supports this sport; FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov participated in a demonstration battle in 2008 to promote the sport’s worldwide popularity and acceptance. Another capital for chess boxing (next to Berlin) is London, where the London Chess Boxing Club has earned a reputation and came off winner at the first club challenge against Berlin with 2:1 points.

During the last four years, the sport has gained popularity in Asia. The Chess Boxing Organization India (founded in 2011) has four hundred members today and in the largest chess boxing club in the world. The first association in Western Asia was founded in 2012, which is the Chess Boxing Organization Iran.

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Current World Champions

Middle-Weight: Sven Rooch (GER)

Light-Heavyweight: Leonid Chernobaev (BLR)

Heavyweight: Nikolay Sazhin (RUS)

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Practice

By now, there are particular training methods that have been tailored to the requirements of chess boxing. Blitz chess duels can thus be integrated in strength and cardio exercises, such as “track chess” which is a rapid chess duel combined with intensive sprints or rapid chess duels while boxing.

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Who would like to try chess boxing or is looking for fellow chess boxers can check out one of the many clubs and associations:

Ten teams with each four top players from all over the world gathered in the Armenian city of Tsakhkadzor from April 18 to 29 2015 to take out the nine-round battle for the popular World Team Championship title.

Russia had the highest average team ELO-rating of 2760 points of all teams in the race.

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Team Ranking with ELO-Ratings

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1 Egypt Rtg-Ø:2548

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Amin Bassem

2634

EGY

2

GM

Shoker Samy

2482

EGY

3

IM

Ezat Mohamed

2479

EGY

4

GM

Adly Ahmed

2595

EGY

IM

Farahat Ali

2389

EGY

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2 Israel Rtg-Ø:2676

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Gelfand Boris

2747

ISR

2

GM

Sutovsky Emil

2628

ISR

3

GM

Smirin Ilia

2652

ISR

4

GM

Rodshtein Maxim

2667

ISR

GM

Postny Evgeny

2636

ISR

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3 Ukraine Rtg-Ø:2719

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Ponomariov Ruslan

2713

UKR

2

GM

Ivanchuk Vassily

2731

UKR

3

GM

Eljanov Pavel

2733

UKR

4

GM

Kryvoruchko Yuriy

2686

UKR

GM

Moiseenko Alexander

2697

UKR

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4 Cuba Rtg-Ø:2665

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Dominguez Perez Leinier

2729

CUB

2

GM

Bruzon Batista Lazaro

2691

CUB

3

GM

Quesada Perez Yuniesky

2629

CUB

4

GM

Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo

2612

CUB

GM

Gonzalez Vidal Yuri

2557

CUB

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5 China Rtg-Ø:2715

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Ding Liren

2751

CHN

2

GM

Yu Yangyi

2724

CHN

3

GM

Bu Xiangzhi

2681

CHN

4

GM

Wei Yi

2703

CHN

IM

Wang Chen

2531

CHN

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6 USA Rtg-Ø:2647

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Shankland Samuel L

2661

USA

2

GM

Lenderman Aleksandr

2617

USA

3

GM

Onischuk Alexander

2665

USA

4

GM

Akobian Varuzhan

2622

USA

GM

Naroditsky Daniel

2640

USA

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7 Hungary Rtg-Ø:2693

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Leko Peter

2713

HUN

2

GM

Erdos Viktor

2612

HUN

3

GM

Almasi Zoltan

2698

HUN

4

GM

Rapport Richard

2710

HUN

GM

Balogh Csaba

2651

HUN

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8 Russia Rtg-Ø:2760

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Grischuk Alexander

2794

RUS

2

GM

Karjakin Sergey

2757

RUS

3

GM

Tomashevsky Evgeny

2745

RUS

4

GM

Jakovenko Dmitry

2744

RUS

GM

Vitiugov Nikita

2736

RUS

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9 Armenia Rtg-Ø:2691

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Aronian Levon

2770

ARM

2

GM

Sargissian Gabriel

2674

ARM

3

GM

Movsesian Sergei

2665

ARM

4

GM

Akopian Vladimir

2656

ARM

GM

Melkumyan Hrant

2651

ARM

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10 India Rtg-Ø:2662

Bo.

Name

IRtg

FED

1

GM

Harikrishna P.

2731

IND

2

GM

Sethuraman S.P.

2634

IND

3

GM

Sasikiran Krishnan

2654

IND

4

GM

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

2630

IND

GM

Sengupta Deep

2576

IND

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Team Results Rounds 1 to 9

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Round 1 on 2015/04/19 at 15.00

India started off strong in Round 1 and scored the highest team result of 3 points and many victories at the expense of Egypt’s rating.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

1

Egypt

1 – 3

India

10

2

2

Israel

2½ – 1½

Armenia

9

3

3

Ukraine

2½ – 1½

Russia

8

4

4

Cuba

2 – 2

Hungary

7

5

5

China

2½ – 1½

USA

6

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Round 2 on 2015/04/20 at 15.00

An all draw round helps India to maintain the lead. Israel, Cuba, and China, however, were only one match point short and close up after Round 2. Favorite team Russia was in bottom rank.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

10

India

2 – 2

USA

6

2

7

Hungary

2 – 2

China

5

3

8

Russia

1½ – 2½

Cuba

4

4

9

Armenia

2½ – 1½

Ukraine

3

5

1

Egypt

2 – 2

Israel

2

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Round 3 on 2015/04/21 at 15.00

Israel took over the lead on the third game day. Three defeats and one draw caused India’s team to fall far behind. Israel and Cuba, on the other hand, rapidly enhanced to the very top with each five match points. The Ukrainian team was the only team of the tournament to achieve an unbelievable four victories in one round.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

2

Israel

3½ – ½

India

10

2

3

Ukraine

4 – 0

Egypt

1

3

4

Cuba

2½ – 1½

Armenia

9

4

5

China

2 – 2

Russia

8

5

6

USA

1½ – 2½

Hungary

7

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Round 4 on 2015/04/22 at 15.00

Armenia scored the most unfavorable results of the fourth game day; they only scored one point through Levon Aroanian’s and Liren Ding’s draws. Cuba took over the overall lead with 7 match points and Ukraine advanced from rank 6 to 2 which it shared with China.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

10

India

2½ – 1½

Hungary

7

2

8

Russia

2 – 2

USA

6

3

9

Armenia

½ – 3½

China

5

4

1

Egypt

1 – 3

Cuba

4

5

2

Israel

1½ – 2½

Ukraine

3

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Round 5 on 2015/04/23 at 15.00

Cuba and Ukraine switched positions in the rankings. Israel caught up with the top, so that Cuba had to comply not only with falling behind on rank 2 but also having to share it with Israel. China and Ukraine soundly remained at the rankings’ top. The greatest game point addition of the day was scored by Russia with victories of Karjakin, Tomashevsky, and Vitiugov. Only Grischuk couldn’t prevail, only tied against Peter Leko.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

3

Ukraine

2½ – 1½

India

10

2

4

Cuba

1½ – 2½

Israel

2

3

5

China

2½ – 1½

Egypt

1

4

6

USA

1½ – 2½

Armenia

9

5

7

Hungary

½ – 3½

Russia

8

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Round 6 on 2015/04/25 at 15.00

Ukraine and China kept the lead and enhanced their advantage to Israel and Cuba on rank 2 by 3 match points. The bottom end of the rankings did not change at all – Egypt was stuck with only 1 match point in 6 rounds.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

10

India

1½ – 2½

Russia

8

2

9

Armenia

2 – 2

Hungary

7

3

1

Egypt

1 – 3

USA

6

4

2

Israel

1½ – 2½

China

5

5

3

Ukraine

2½ – 1½

Cuba

4

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Round 7 on 2015/04/26 at 15.00

After round 7 had been played, everything pointed to Ukraine or China winning the tournament. None of the other teams were a serious threat to the teams with 11 match points each. India as well as Israel, Armenia, Cuba, and Hungary had only 7 points each. At least the battle for the silver medal remained suspenseful.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

4

Cuba

1½ – 2½

India

10

2

5

China

2 – 2

Ukraine

3

3

6

USA

2½ – 1½

Israel

2

4

7

Hungary

2½ – 1½

Egypt

1

5

8

Russia

1½ – 2½

Armenia

9

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Round 8 on 2015/04/27 at 15.00

China scored a remarkable result against Cuba, while the United States interrupted Ukraine’s sequence of successful rounds. Therefore, China went ahead with two whole point’s advantage to the Ukraine. Russia scored 3 points against the hopelessly inferior team of Egypt and managed to enhance to where a match for a medal seemed realistic. Armenia remained in 3rd rank, but had to fear the approaching teams of Israel, Russia, Hungary, and the United States (all one point short).

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

10

India

1½ – 2½

Armenia

9

2

1

Egypt

½ – 3½

Russia

8

3

2

Israel

2 – 2

Hungary

7

4

3

Ukraine

1½ – 2½

USA

6

5

4

Cuba

1 – 3

China

5

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Round 9 on 2015/04/28 at 11.00

The victories of Yi Wie and Yangi Yu and the overall score of 3-0 against India were China’s overall tournament victory. Ukraine tied against Hungary which was enough to secure 2nd place. Armenia played against Egypt, their victory and bronze medal thus little surprising.

No.

SNo.

Team

Res.

Team

SNo.

1

5

China

3 – 1

India

10

2

6

USA

3 – 1

Cuba

4

3

7

Hungary

2 – 2

Ukraine

3

4

8

Russia

2½ – 1½

Israel

2

5

9

Armenia

2½ – 1½

Egypt

1

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Final Results

Rank

Team

Gam.

+

=

–

Matchpoint

Gamepoints.

1

China

9

6

3

0

15

23

2

Ukraine

9

5

2

2

12

21

3

Armenia

9

5

1

3

11

18

4

Russia

9

4

2

3

10

20½

5

USA

9

4

2

3

10

19½

6

Hungary

9

2

5

2

9

17

7

Israel

9

3

2

4

8

18½

8

Cuba

9

3

1

5

7

16½

9

India

9

3

1

5

7

16

10

Egypt

9

0

1

8

1

10

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Find pairings, pictures, videos, and board results on the official tournament website:

The 17th edition of the Dubai Open Chess Tournament (also known as Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup) with 155 participants, 39 of which were grandmasters, took place from April 5 through 16 in Dubai. The participants travelled to the Emirates from 39 countries to join the race for the prize money fund of 50.000 USD (12.000 USD for the victor, the rest distributed between the first 18 ranks). One third of the players, 31 to be exact, came from India and another 25 from the United Arab Emirates.

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Source: http://www.dubaichess.ae

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Surprisingly, the Englishman David W. L. Howell, who held the highest ELO-rating of 2687 points amongst all participants, came off second and his strongest opponent Vladimir Fedossev from Russia (ELO 2674) came off third, while favorites such as Yuriy Kuzubov (ELO 2658) and Abhijeet Gupta (ELO 2629) had to comply with ranks 25 and 71. Azerbaijani Zaur Mammadov, on the other hand, made it to the Top 10 with an ELO-rating of “only” 2470 points.

Greatest winner of the tournament was Turkish grandmaster Dragan Solak who was born in Serbia. The 35 year-old prevailed over Axel Berglind, Salah Yousry, Tigran Harutyunian, Yuriy Kuzubov, and Yuri Solodovnichenko and tied against Vladimir Fedoseev, Igor Kovalenko, David Howell, and Eltaj Safarli through which he scored 7 out of 9 points like the players on following five ranks. He dominated the tie break round and grabbed the 12.000 USD prize money from right under David Howell’s nose.

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Final Results

Rank

Name

ELO

NAT

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Pts.

Rtg.1

Rtg.2

Rtg.3

1

GM

Solak Dragan

2602

TUR

68s1

60w1

29s1

3w½

14w½

25s1

2w½

15s1

6w½

7

20684

0

55,5

2

GM

Howell David W L

2687

ENG

75s1

17w1

26s1

24w1

8s½

7w½

1s½

13w1

3s½

7

20583

0

55,5

3

GM

Fedoseev Vladimir

2674

RUS

79w1

58s1

44w1

1s½

15w1

4s½

53w1

7s½

2w½

7

20556

0

53,5

4

GM

Istratescu Andrei

2630

FRA

65s1

61w1

9s1

31w½

21s1

3w½

7s0

23w1

20w1

7

20426

0

53

5

GM

Ivanisevic Ivan

2638

SRB

123w1

37s½

32w½

43s1

35w½

39s1

23w½

53s1

7w1

7

19971

0

48,5

6

GM

Safarli Eltaj

2637

AZE

88s0

90w1

89s1

61w1

17s½

40w1

21s1

8w1

1s½

7

19511

0

48

7

GM

Shabalov Alexander

2500

USA

145w1

87s½

69w1

71w1

16s1

2s½

4w1

3w½

5s0

6,5

20547

0

50,5

8

GM

Grandelius Nils

2613

SWE

96s1

105w1

76s1

110w1

2w½

14s½

15w½

6s0

39w1

6,5

20447

0

49,5

9

IM

Mammadov Zaur

2470

AZE

90w1

111s1

4w0

84s½

72w1

24w1

22s1

25s½

12w½

6,5

19750

0

47

10

GM

Fier Alexandr

2624

BRA

78w1

74s½

52w1

14s0

69w1

70s½

32w½

37s1

31w1

6,5

19699

0

45

11

GM

Shimanov Aleksandr

2601

RUS

82w1

51s-

97s1

73s½

74w1

33w½

60s1

18w1

14s½

6,5

19300

0

45,5

12

GM

Rakhmanov Aleksandr

2623

RUS

114s1

48w0

65s1

49w½

41s1

36w1

54s½

17w1

9s½

6,5

19064

0

47

13

GM

Guseinov Gadir

2606

AZE

56w1

73s1

42w1

15s0

34w1

23s½

14w1

2s0

25w½

6

20498

0

51,5

14

GM

Kovalenko Igor

2665

LAT

38s1

50w½

33s1

10w1

1s½

8w½

13s0

36w1

11w½

6

20385

0

54,5

15

GM

Solodovnichenko Yuri

2584

UKR

117s1

77w1

51s1

13w1

3s0

20w1

8s½

1w0

16s½

6

20363

0

51

16

GM

Zhigalko Sergei

2657

BLR

92w1

54s1

39w1

21s½

7w0

35s½

42w1

31s½

15w½

6

20217

0

49

17

IM

Das Sayantan

2439

IND

107w1

2s0

56w1

66s1

6w½

27s½

35w1

12s0

53w1

6

20062

0

51

18

GM

Petrosian Tigran L.

2660

ARM

66w1

33s½

37w1

20s0

52s1

110w1

31w½

11s0

32w1

6

20035

0

50

19

GM

Bartel Mateusz

2642

POL

64s1

133w1

40s½

23w½

29s1

53w0

70s½

76w1

24s½

6

20028

0

46,5

20

GM

Ipatov Alexander

2614

TUR

93w1

69s½

55w1

18w1

31s½

15s0

43w1

54w1

4s0

6

19971

0

48

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Five participants were awarded with FIDE titles after the tournament: IM Zaur Mammadov fulfilled the last GM norm and was thus announced grandmaster. Vignesh Nr, Abishek Kelkar, and Deshpande Aniruddha from India accomplished the IM norms. Lastly, Wang Shanshan secured the title “Woman International Master” (WIM).

The German Chess Major League season ended yesterday and, for the 10th time in a row, the OSG Baden-Baden secured the championship title. Several super-grandmasters of sixteen competing teams with ELO-ratings of 2700 and above, all ranking in the current Top 50, joined the race. World-class players, such as Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Adams, Giri, Gelfand, Rapport, Fressinet, Eljanov, Jakovenko, and Almasi proved their worth in the cities Baden-Baden, Schwäbisch Hall, Bremen and Mülheim.

One day prior to the official season end, the OSG Baden-Baden had already been sure to come off best team. Runner-up Werder Bremen was also in a secure place prematurely. The real competition was thus fought for third rank between the teams from Hockenheim and Schwäbisch Hall. Not even the remarkable victory of Li Chao against Anton Guijarro in Round 15 could save Schwäbisch Hall from the inevitable: The SV 1930 Hockenheim had scored two victories and five draws during the last round which gave them a half-point advantage to finally take home the bronze medal.

The OSG Baden-Baden managed to remain undefeated throughout the entire season. Especially Arkadij Naiditsch (12 victories out of 15 duels) and Etienne Bacrot (scored 8.5 points for his team) contributed to the team’s success. The highest success rate within the team was Rustam Kasimdzhanov’s who won 6 out of 7 games (equal to 86%). Another great contribution to the overall victory wasn’t made by superstars like Aronian, Svidler, Adams, Bacrot, Naiditsch, Kasimdzhanov, or Vallejo Pons – German grandmaster Philipp Schlosser (ELO 2570) also helped with 7.5 points. Having won 14 rounds, the OSG Baden-Baden more than deserved to take home the trophy.

The German Federation for Assertion of General Equalization and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (German abbreviation: DVDGC) has obtained assurance of altering the traditional names of chess pieces at the European Court of Justice.

The federation has been engaged in asserting the use of female red light icons in Germany traffic and has furthermore raised a voice in changing the articles of the nouns “success”, “peace”, and “victory” – the common article for those nouns used to be “der” implying for the grammatical gender to be masculine which was now changed to “die”, the feminine pendant. They have now obtained their first success in national sports. The federation itself claims only a partial success. Primarily they aimed for substitution of at least two figures (Bishop and Knight) through newly created pieces whose designs were supposed to severely differ from the others. The request, however, was declined, as implementing the changes would be too complicated and confusing. Special retail stores, for instance, wouldn’t be allowed to sell their chess sets remaining in stock. This alteration would furthermore lead to disparities in international tournaments, since other countries would continue to use the figures they have always used.

The DVDGC is not going to withdraw their requests for equality because of one setback. Say they it is bad enough that the words “rule” and “defeat” were accompanied by female articles and negative connotation in the German language, whilst a term as “victory” with a masculine article was understood completely different.

The inequality amongst chess pieces could not be tolerated any longer, according to the DVDGC. The female Queen has had to stand up against the Rook, Knight, Bishop, King, and Pawn on the board, which allegedly created a discriminating imbalance. Germany is therefore introducing the female Knight and female Bishop at instance.

“We are convinced that this alteration will change chess in Germany fundamentally”, says DVDGC spokeswoman Irmgard Grundelmüser-Schachtler in her first interview. “The alterations will certainly promote chess among young women and encourage them to pay more attention to this traditional sport. They will identify with the game more easily and enjoy it.” In the recent past, the German Chess Federation has complained about the lack of young female talents.

The verdict consequently leads to editing of the entire German ruleset and literature on chess matters. Publishers must change their products until May 1, 2016. After that date they may no longer sell their original editions in book stores.

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Who is aware of today’s date might suspect: You have been target of our April fool hoax. Of course, Germany has not initiated the change of chess pieces’ names 🙂

Nevertheless, we would like to point out to you today that a few more female talents wouldn’t hurt chess competitions – Grab your daughter, friend, girlfriend, niece, mother, aunt, or neighbor and hit the board! 🙂

And: We did not mean to offend anyone with our little joke! Feminists and equal opportunities representatives are doing important jobs in Germany. Chessimo supports equal opportunities at any time!

(But as long as serious discussions about red light icons and verbal expressions are preferred over discussions about equal wages and salaries for equal performance, the author of this article takes the freedom of making a joke at the “engagement’s” expense).

The Chinese chess grandmaster Wei Yi is currently considered the first serious future challenge for Magnus Carlsen. For two reasons: He was born June 2, 1999 and is therefore only fifteen years old at the moment. Since March 2015, he has ranged above the mark of 2700 ELO points and became the youngest Super-Grandmaster of all time – and took over the first of Carlsen’s records.

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Wei Yi’s development is a rocket-like ascend

At the young age of eight, the boy participated at the Chinese Chess Championship (Group B) and as a total newcomer scored a draw against Grandmaster Zhou Jianchao.

Wei won the 2010 Asian Youth Championship in the category Under 12 and shortly after the Youth World Championship. He was rewarded with the FIDEMaster title thereafter.

He fulfilled the IM norm in 2012 at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow and at the Asian Individual Championship in Ho-Chi-Minh City. The victory over Richard Rapport and a draw against winner Alexander Ipatov helped him reach the first GM norm at the Youth World Championship in Athens. For this tournament only participants under twenty years old were admitted, Wei Yi was only twelve at that time. A few months later, he fulfilled the second GM norm at the 2nd INA Open in Jakarta, at which he prevailed over Michael Krasenkow and Sergey Fedorchuk.

In January 2013, Wei Yi became International Master.

In March, he competed at the Reykjavik Open, defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and thus fulfilled the third GM norm. His performance at the Chess World Cup in Tromsö was remarkable as well – with victories over favorite players Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexey Shirov he made if two third round, which is when he lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

He was announced Grandmaster in May 2013. At the age of fourteen and about five months, Wei held an astonishing ELO of 2602 points and thus became youngest player in history who surpassed a rating of 2600 points.

The story of success continued when Wei Yi helped the Chinese national chess team to win the gold medal at the Chess Olympics in Tromsö in August 2014, and when Group B dominated with 10.5 points out of 13 duels at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Vijk aan Zee the following January. Without a single defeat on his account, he achieved a better ELO-rating (2804) and David Navara and qualified for joining Group A of the same tournament in the 2016 edition at which only the world’s best players compete.

In February 2015, he achieved a shared 3rd to 11th rank at the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters and improved his rating to 2706 points. He rapidly advanced to rank 40 of the worldwide standings. In March, his rating of 2706 points was officially approved, which makes him the youngest player since implementation of the ELO rating system who holds an ELO of 2700 and above.

We dedicated an article to the question of whether China is becoming the world’s new chess nation and Wei Yi will grow to become the next Magnus Carlsen. Only three months later, the question is now more discussed than ever before. There is potential in the enthusiastic Wei Yi, without doubt. What the future holds for him depends on how he uses and utilizes his talent. Magnus Carlsen, for sure, should get ready.

From March 10 to 18 2015, the traditional chess tournament Reykjavik Open was staged for the 51st time by the Icelandic capital.

Among the 274 participants from 37 countries were 35 international grandmasters, elevating the event to world-class level.

93 of these participants originated from Iceland, 36 came from Norway, 15 were Germany, each 13 from the United States and Denmark, and another 10 from Canada and France travelled to Iceland to make sure that their countries were well-represented at the tournament.

The upper thirty ranks of the worldwide standings were embodied only by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, David Navara, and Pavel Eljanov.

Dutchman Erwin L’ami who was not considered a favorite player with an ELO of 2605 points, delivered and excellent performance. Even the last critics were convinced in Round 7 when he defeated Mamedyarov (ELO 3756). He managed to remain completely undefeated until the final round – only then he lost to Eljanov. Nevertheless, he won the overall tournament: with 8.5 out of 10 points, he secured first rank which was absolutely deserved after an ELO-performance of incredible 2826 points.

Brazilian player Alexandr Fier surprised as well, ranking 4th after beating Navara in Round 8. The Frenchman and bronze-medal-winner Fabien Libiszewski performed high above his usual gaming level with an extra 200 ELO points.

The first ten ranks were rewarded with prize money ranging from €350 (10th) to €5.000 (1st).

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Final Results Top 30

Rk.

Name

FED

Pts.

1

GM

L’ami Erwin

NED

8,5

2

GM

Eljanov Pavel

UKR

8

3

GM

Libiszewski Fabien

FRA

8

4

GM

Fier Alexandr

BRA

7,5

5

GM

Naroditsky Daniel

USA

7,5

6

GM

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar

AZE

7,5

7

GM

Melkumyan Hrant

ARM

7,5

8

GM

Hansen Eric

CAN

7,5

9

GM

Hammer Jon Ludvig

NOR

7,5

10

GM

Gupta Abhijeet

IND

7,5

11

GM

Stefansson Hannes

ISL

7,5

12

GM

Danielsen Henrik

ISL

7,5

13

GM

Jussupow Artur

GER

7,5

14

GM

Grandelius Nils

SWE

7,5

15

GM

Gao Rui

CHN

7

16

GM

Granda Zuniga Julio E

PER

7

17

GM

Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn

ISL

7

18

GM

Jones Gawain C B

ENG

7

19

GM

Maze Sebastien

FRA

7

20

IM

Norowitz Yaacov

USA

7

21

GM

Grover Sahaj

IND

7

22

GM

Idani Pouya

IRI

7

23

WGM

Khademalsharieh Sarasadat

IRI

7

24

GM

Cornette Matthieu

FRA

7

25

GM

Le Roux Jean-Pierre

FRA

7

26

GM

Rombaldoni Axel

ITA

7

27

GM

Movsesian Sergei

ARM

7

28

IM

Sarkar Justin

USA

7

29

FM

Antal Tibor Kende

HUN

7

30

FM

Rosner Jonas

GER

7

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The ELO-rating is only a guideline and has only limited validity in determining a player’s strength – which the Reykjavik Open proved yet again.

While David Navara with an ELO of 2736 points didn’t even make it to the Top 30, other players like Johaneson (ELO 2212), Antal (ELO 2317), Khadermalsharieh (ELO 2357), or Sarkar (ELO 2376) surpassed him in means of playing performance.

The youngest participant was American Hans Niemann who came off 80th at an incredibly young age of eleven.